Baking a Cake, a Family Tradition

My father-in-law got a lemon cake for his birthdays and the tradition has a long history. I've eaten it, but never been involved in making one. Just over ten years ago Dick's cousin gave me her mother's version of the recipe but I never had reason to actually make it until last week. We agreed to bring dessert to dinner with friends and it just came to mind. I don't bake much any more and don't even know if I have some of the implements needed, but made do. Dick watched while I cooked the filling and applied it so he could tell if it looked right and I got the coconut on it right. Everyone seemed to enjoy it at dinner and the hosts seemed happy to keep the remains. The next morning Dick commented again how good it had been. So, a successful excursion into family traditions.

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Designer Credits: Ohana by Biograffiti
fonts: Kristen ITC, Gold Mine, Euromode

More Ice from December

The ice formations along the lake in December were so incredible. I have more photos than I had scrapped, so decided to use some for another double page layout with sort of a positive/negative image look. I'm not sure about it, in fact, redid it once, but I do like the photos. Here at the end of January it just keeps snowing a little every day (at least we didn't get socked like the DC and NYC areas!) I am so looking forward to something other than the two months of constant white.

The images will look better if you click on them to see the larger version.

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Designer Credits: 
-patterned paper and fabrics, buttons, screw, alpha: First Street by Miss Crow's Magickal Emporium
-pale papers: Stamp My Heart by Kitty Designs
fonts: Angel Tears, Brisk

Lady of Mystery

Flight of Fancy is the featured kit at Retro Designs blog right now. I've used it in a number of layouts, but in most it is combined with other kits. I thought I'd try a new one with FoF and found a fancy frame I had never used that intrigued me. I teamed it with a photo from one of the old photo albums brought from Slovakia by Dick's grandfather. I don't know the lady's identity, but I think she is quite handsome. I worked on the photo a little, especially giving it a topography filter that gave it more depth and interesting lighting. I think the result really does have a hint of mystery and definitely a touch of elegance.

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Designer Credits: Flight of Fancy by Retro Designs
font: Snell BT

My Grandparents Golden Again

I have created a number of pages with photos from the celebration of my grandparents' golden anniversary in 1946. It seems to fascinate me and though I was there, I was not yet two and remember nothing of it, not even the house where they then lived. I hope Dick and I make it the seven plus years to reach this milestone ourselves! Meanwhile, continuing with the double page challenge, I think the very first one I ever did was on this anniversary, so I wanted to try it again. This has one "new" item, their marriage record from the book in the courthouse. I used fewer photos but could see doing more pages with some of the others. Maybe one of these days...

Click on the images to see the pages larger, especially to read the documents on the right hand page.

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Designer Credits: Sunrise.Sunset by Fei-fei's Stuff
fonts: Snell BT and Snell Bold BT

Another Winter Day

It wasn't so cold today and I am feeling better, so we stopped by my sister's house to check on things and water the plants. Everything was fine and I took pictures of things in the snow. We saw lots of tracks there of rabbit, squirrel, deer, etc. but none were as sharp as the one in the tiny photo which was at our house, likely a local cat. I'm not too keen on using tiny photos, but went with that aspect of the freebie template. The result is another two-page spread for the Fei-fei's Stuff Designer Spotlight Challenge. I first posted it left and right per the template, but decided I had to reverse them like this:

As always, remember to click on the images to see them larger. If you look at the individual pages, you should be able to read the text easily.

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Designer Credits: all Fei-fei's Stuff:
-template: Outlined No. 4
-photo corners and circles recolored from the template
-papers, stems: Like Home
-plant drawings: Profiles No. 2
fonts: Elric, Bank Gothic Medium BT, Amapola, Tahoma

A Special Park and Designer Spotlight

At Oscraps there is a Designer Spotlight on Fei-fei's Stuff running through January 30th. Check it out HERE. There is a free mini kit and a two-page template because the challenge is for two-page spreads.

I created my first layout for the challenge with an atmospheric photo from a park that is very special to me. It is a West Virginia State Park called Tu-Endie-Wei in Point Pleasant. It is an historic park at the conflence of the Kanawah and Ohio Rivers that commemorates the 1774 Battle of Point Pleasant. One of my ancestors died in that battle and his widow, remarried, went on to be a heroine in the later Indian wars. She was known as "Mad" Anne Bailey. She lived the last part of her life in Gallia County, Ohio, and was buried there in 1825. In the 20th century her remains were relocated to the park with a marker. Some of her belongings are displayed in the Mansion House Museum, the building in the photo. That is a two-story hewn log structure that was once a tavern. The most intriguing item is a framed design made from hair which is claimed to be hers. I recently learned that there is a "Mad" Anne Bailey reenactor with a blog and a Wikipedia page that lists my web site on her as a reference.

 

Click on the two-page image, or the separate pages to see them larger and read the small amount of text.

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Designer Credits:
-papers: Fei-fei's Stuff - Of the essence - add on
-stitching: Biograffiti - believe mini kit
-tree design: Kitty Designs - Shimmer
fonts: baby dont worry bout it, Bradley Hand ITC, Corbel, Erie

Still Watching Our Hibiscus

The hibiscus has been indoors for almost two months now and seems to be getting plenty of light even though its view is always of a snowy landscape. It has nice new growth, but it was a disappointment when a bud fell off today. And if you look closely at the photos I took this morning you'll see the new leaves have a good crop of some little white mites that were also on the older growth. Wonder what you do about them? And I am really starting to feel better now. The cough and stuffy nose are still around, but much reduced and I feel more like doing things and can concentrate for a little bit at least. Realized these were the first photos taken since the 11th! Maybe the end is in sight!

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Designer Credits: Blossom Secret by Celine Designs
fonts: Kayleigh, iNked God

A Little Serendipity in Photo ID

Sunday I went 24 hours without colds meds and felt miserable. But then I was out of it Saturday while taking them. Last night I went back to them and felt nearly human today. My email brought a nice surprise too. A genealogy mailing list had a posting from someone (actually a distant relative of mine whom I've met) looking for help identifying photos that had belonged to an Elaine Fulton George. That looked a lot like what I thought was the name of a friend of my grandmother whom I only knew as Mrs. George. I have a nice photo of my grandmother with a taller woman I thought might be that Mrs. George, so I sent a copy in reply and learned that indeed I was right about my photo. She was related by marriage to my distant relative. Certainly I had to scrap a page for that photo! It bears the caption "SEP - 60" meaning it was printed in September of 1960.

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Designer Credits: Stamp My Heart by Kitty Designs
fonts: Celtic Hand, Catriel

Under the weather; remembering fun creatures

I've been feeling wretched with a nasty cold or something and can barely think. Took a look at some older photos today and found ones of a nifty little caterpillar. I love all the the little furry and tufty ones and this is quite cute. It was on a picnic table under a little tree (oak I think) whose leaves were probably its food and the food of its relatives. I never try to touch these guy as they look better than they would feel and worse, some STING!

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Designer Credits: Fei-fei's Stuff: Like Home
-stitching: Dydyge - October Festivities, Part 4
fonts: Girls are Weird, Memorandum

Watching a Nest

We got lots more snow today and even more is predicted. Then they are talking about colder temperatures coming. Isn't winter fun? NOT! Today I was happy to scrap an old pair of photos from summer time. In 1995 I did follow up of the nesting birds in Lake View from the work we did in 1983. I published a booklet about them after that. One of the most interesting things I discovered was this Red-headed Woodpecker nest where the birds raised one family and then tried a second nesting though apparently not successfully. I spent a lot of time watching this pair and grew quite fond of them. I wrote a little article about them and you can see it here.

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Designer Credits:
template for January CopyCat Challenge featuring Maya de Groot (madigirl)
kit: Winter Escape by Tinamarie (Val C. Designs)
fonts: Baveuse, Lemon Chicken, Amienne

Driving in the Snow

The snow started coming down early in the afternoon and made our driving not fun! We drove to my sister's, from there to the airport on a freeway that was not well cleared. Good thing we had allowed plenty of time. Her flight to California was only a little late and she is now out of the ice and snow for a time. We still had a distance to travel back home along different roads. They weren't in good condition either, but at least we were mostly ahead of rush hour. We saw a few minor accidents along the roads, but nothing serious. It was slippery out but for a change the other drivers were pretty cautious and courteous. It wasn't quite white knuckle driving, but Dick thought it was not nice. I did take some pictures through the windshield of a massive church complex that always intrigues me and that looked different in the snow. I used this one for a photography challenge on the subject of balance.

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Designer Credits:
-background paper (color altered), red-brown paper: Bohemian August by Miss Crow's Magickal Emporium
-gray papers, rub on, chrome tag: Fresh Start by Ashalee Wall
fonts: Futura Lt BT, Big Top, Dawn Castle

A Few Winter Leaves

I don't think I even realized there were a number of small trees of Sweetbay Magnolia in Lake View until January 1st when the silvery undersides of their leaves caught my eye. I've scrapped my favorite photo of them for a web inspiration challenge. Maybe the leaves stood out more then as there was no snow when we started the new year. We have a bit now but are worrying about tomorrow when they are threatening lots of snow and my sister is supposed to be flying to California in the late afternoon. We're keeping our fingers crossed all goes well.

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Designer Credits: Stamp My Heart by Kitty Designs
fonts: Copperplate Gothic Light, Bradley Hand ITC, Boopee

Cover Design: Project 12 of 2010

At Oscraps people are busily designing covers for their 52 weeks project for 2011. I was especially inspired by one of them to work on a cover design for my 2010 Project 12 pages. I think this one might be very nice for it.

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Designer Credits:
-background paper: Awakening by Ida Designs
-all elements are from Shabby Chic Rooms, Part 2 by Retro Designs
-alpha: First Street by Miss Crow's Magickal Emporium
fonts: HansHand, Earwig Factory

Chase Away Gray Winter Days

The city greenhouse has such wonderful things on display and in the winter the humid heat and exotic blossoms are really a way to brighten these dismal winter days. In December we visited very briefly and you've already seen some of the poinsettias on display. Among them were some other lovely flowers and I loved a photo of a bird-of-paradise. A January color challenge gave me the push to get it onto a page. Given all the new snow that fell today with more to follow, it was really nice to play with these pretty colors.

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Designer Credits:
-yellow papers: November Rain by TaylorMade Designs
-magenta paper and flower: Awakening by TaylorMade Designs
-lavendar paper: Happy To Be Me by Lydia Designs
-frame: Party On Blog Train by Cinzia Designs
-design: Something Pop by Fei-fei's Stuff
fonts: Girls are Weird, HansHand

The Winter World of Gulls

We love looking at all the gulls and the fine points of telling them apart. They really do like hanging around on the ice! January 3rd was sunny and a bit chilly when we visited the lakefront. There wasn't much around, but the gulls were standing on what ice was nearby and lots of them on ice farther out. The Long-tailed Duck was easily seen and looking great, a male in winter plumage including his long tail. The small photo was from 2005 and we haven't seen any of the unusual gulls yet this year.
The large photo is blended and the small one cropped with a mask and some edges slightly erased. It was overly blue and I've altered the color balance. It is for a challenge using a photo within a photo.

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Designer Credits:
-background under large photo: Note to Self Add On by Biograffiti
-visible white background: Winter Escape by Tinamarie
-colorful paper, lace, label: First Street by Miss Crow's Magickal Emporium
-lined overlay: 5 grungy overlays by Miss Crow's Magickal Emporium
-photo mask based on matte from Bohemian August by Miss Crow's Magickal Emporium
fonts: iNked God, Biondi, Brisk

Advice I Wish I'd Had

A challenge called for us to share a bit of wisdom, advice, etc. that we wish we'd had at some time in the past. I immediately thought of the lament of many genealogists, myself included, who wish they had learned more from the older generations when they were still here. I think it could also be a caution to anyone who still has those older relatives alive! My advice is to "Ask, Listen, Remember."

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Designer Credits: Note to Self Add On by Biograffiti
photo of my mother and me from mid 1950s
fonts: Pupcat, Minya Nouvelle

January 2011 Begins

January 1st is the day I begin a new list of birds seen during the year. When faced with a challenge related to fresh starts I finally realized this would be my subject. We enjoyed warmer temperatures on New Year's day, the rain and mist less so. Now we're back to cold, but so far no ice and snow. So here is my first layout of 2011, Annual Bird List.

(Designer Credits: -kit: Shimmer by Kitty Designs
-swirl: Something Pop by Fei-fei's Stuff
-tag: Fresh Start by Ashalee Wall
fonts: Dali, Kings of Pacifica, Celtic Hand, Bradley Hand ITC)

Today we took a quick look in Lake View Cemetery after the first football game. We didn't have long between the lowering sun and the cemetery closing time of 5:30. The light was stunning! The sky was clear and blue with areas of gray clouds layered with puffy white ones. The sun was low so only the treetops and other tall things were well lit. The brilliant angel called out to be savored. So my second layout of the year features Dramatic Winter Light.

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Designer Credits: Golden Memories by Retro Designs
fonts: Baveuse, Lemon Chicken, MisterEarl BT

December 2010 Review (Project 12)

I've completed my Project 12 pages for 2010! Each month I've done a 2-page spread to capture moments and thoughts for that month. Each one looks pretty different. November was very pleasant, but winter hit on December 1. Other than a three-day respite and the very end of the month we spent all of the time (day and night) below freezing with snow on the ground. The first thirty days averaged 6.5 below the average for December even though the year as a whole was quite warm. The weather was offset by many pleasant happenings. Don't forget to click on the image to see it in a larger format.

 You can see the individual pages and even read the text by clicking on them below.

Last month Helen hoped I wouldn't need too much white for these December pages, but that hope was in vain. The new year, however, started in the 50s and we were out birding in the rain. The only snow or ice around at the moment is where it was piled up. The temperature is falling though, so winter will soon return.  Thank you all for your support and comments during 2010 on my monthly pages here and at Deco-Pages.
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Designer Credits:
kit: Winter Escape by tinamarie
month/year plate: Jennifer Rassi
dates: Bohemian August by Miss Crow's Magickal Emporium
fonts: Blue Highway Linocut, Kristen ITC